by Pastor Mark Driscoll Acts 29 is a church planting network that has seen over 400 churches planted in the United States in addition to churches planted in over a dozen other nations. We work across a few dozen denominations and networks because we want churches to be planted and lives to be changed by Jesus.
This past Easter alone, our combined US attendance across all Acts 29 churches was 175,000 people! And we are currently evaluating some 500 potential new church planters, as God is exploding our opportunities.
"This past Easter alone, our combined US attendance across all Acts 29 churches was 175,000 people!"
If you have a heart for missions, church planting, or are even part of an Acts 29 church, we would humbly ask that you make a generous year end donation. For any gift over ...
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by Mark Driscoll
Read: Part 1 | Part 2 | Full Version PDF
You get to pick your friends. Your wife gets to pick her friends. Your kids get to pick their friends.
As a pastor, you will be blessed if even one of these friends is on your leadership team. You are likely young, naïve, and simplistic, and so you will disagree with me. You will work very hard to make leaders in your church into friends and pretend they are peers. It will blow up when you have to lead them, correct them, fire them, and/or they betray you. True friends may emerge from your young church plant, but only time will tell. Give it some years and see who sticks around and acts like a Christian. As a church planter, the odds are your real friends will be people outside of your church who are spiritually mature ...
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by Mark Driscoll
As church planters, Grace and I learned the hard way what a friendship is and is not. Somehow, I got the silly notion that everyone who picked me to be their friend was, in fact, my friend.
Subsequently, I ate lots of meals with people I did not enjoy, had people on my family vacations that drove me so nutty I could not wait to get back to work, and spent countless hours answering the phone, replying to emails, and responding to the demands of pushy, rude, selfish people who smiled while saying words like “buddy” and “friend.” What they meant by “friend” was something more akin to “bullied victim.”
The truth is, as a pastor, you and your wife have many kinds of relationships. What has been helpful for ...
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Posted in: Marriage and Family, Emotional Health, Relationship Building
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The following is from Acts 29 Co-Founder Mark Driscoll's teaching "The Calling of a Church Planter." After outlining the necessity of a calling on the life of a church planter, he presented twelve questions to ask in confirming the call. We are thrilled to have him preach on the Gospel and Family at the San Jose Boot Camp on June 3.
Listen to the full audio | Get the notes in PDF
Here's an audio segment of Driscoll explaining the calling and a need for confirmation:
Calling Confirmation Questions
1. Is the Holy Spirit out ahead of you planting the church? You don’t plant a church for God, you plant a church with God. If money, people, and a place start showing up as you’re preparing to plant, that is potential evidence that the Holy ...
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Posted in: Calling
Tags: calling of a church planter, questions to confirm a calling, how can i confirm my call to plant a church, am i called to plant, how do i know if i am called to plant, how can i know i am called to plant a church, how can i confirm my call to plant a church, should i plant a church, mark driscoll, seattle boot camp, twelve questions to confirm your call
Pastor Mark Driscoll is offering free, online leadership coaching for church leaders everywhere. If you'd like to participate in this leadership coaching, or are curious, read more here.
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